The Rift

by Colors

#17 Lynn

I

“Oh. Hey there. Are you here to rent a book?”

Spike stood in the entrance, the cute little dragon that lives with Twilight or something. I knew him by name, but I had only talked to him once before, and very briefly.

“No,” I said, “I want to talk to Twilight. Is she here?”

“Err,” Spike made. “Twilight is... busy. Does she know you?”

“She probably knows my cousin, Lyra,” I said, which wasn’t really an answer and didn’t really matter, but it felt like a better response than ‘nope’.

“Woah! I didn’t know Lyra had a cousin! What’s your name?”

“Lynn.”

“... Lyra and Lynn?”

“Yup.”

“So what do you...?” He tried to get a good glimpse at my cutie mark, which is always a slightly awkward thing for guys to do, though I guess he at least wasn’t a stallion.

“It’s complicated,” I said. “Can I talk to Twilight? Please?”

“Uhm. She’s... really busy?”

“It’s important.”

“Um. Still, I-”

“Come on! Not even for Lyra’s cousin?”

“Ahm.” Spike gave a nervous chuckle, then cleared his throat. “Alright. Come in.”

I rolled my eyes as I followed him inside.

II

“Uh, hey,” Twilight said as she saw me approaching, looking up from a book. It was lying face-up, so I couldn’t get a glimpse at its title, but it certainly was thick. “Do you need assistance in the library?”

“No. I was hoping I could talk to you.”

“Um,” Twilight made. “Do I know you?”

“Lynn,” I introduced myself. We shook hooves. “Lyra’s cousin,” I added, just because it always seemed to make things easier, even though the only thing Lyra and I had in common was our color.

“Lynn. How can I help you?”

“... it’s complicated.”

Twilight raised an eyebrow.

“Some weird stuff has happened,” I said carefully, “and I’m not sure what to do about it, but I think I’m supposed to tell somepony. Uhm, I...”

“Weird stuff?” Twilight echoed, as my break got a bit longer.

I nodded.

“What kind of stuff?”

“It’s... I can’t really tell you everything... or even most of it... that’s what makes it so hard... but-”

“Why not?”

“You might not believe me,” I said, a response which nicely bent around being a lie.

“As it happens,” Twilight said, “some extremely... ‘weird stuff’... has happened to... well, friends of mine. Was it by chance the kind of thing that shouldn’t be possible?”

“Oh yes,” I said immediately. “Not remotely possible.”

“Crap.” I could see Twilight biting her lip. “This is bad! This is really really bad! I’m really worried! Lynn, can you tell me what it was? Please?”

“It’s-”

“I promise that everything you want to be a secret is kept secret.”

“Let me think,” I said. Then I sighed. “Alright.”

And I told her everything, except that I replaced the entire three challenge game with ‘then I did something which I can’t tell you about that saved me from her crystal thing, but which would have gotten at least one of us killed.’

III

“That’s even more insane than what I’ve seen,” Twilight said. “... then again, both stories are impossible, so I guess they’re in the same ballpark.”

“What have you seen?” I asked. Now that I had told her my story, I thought it was only fair for her to repay the favor.

“Rainbow Dash can now fly seventy percent faster than the fastest flier ever recorded in Equestrian history, and yesterday, when Spike tried using his breath to send a scroll, he suddenly cast a giant fireball! It destroyed five books, but only because I put it out almost immediately. If I hadn’t been there...”

“How fast was Rainbow Dash before?”

“Not quite as fast as the fastest flier in recoded history.”

“That does sound impossible,” I agreed.

Twilight nodded.

“Have you notified the princess? You have a direct link, don’t you?”

“That is confidential,” Twilight said. “But yes. Uhm, if you don’t mind me asking...”

“Yeah?”

“Your cutie mark ... what is it?”

I gave a sigh. “It’s complicated...”

Comments

[Cloud Hop]

What the fuck is going on in this story???

[Colors]

8351067
It’s complicated.